Memory Management

What is Memory Management?

• Memory Management is the process of controlling and coordinating computer
memory, assigning portions known as blocks to various running programs to
optimize the overall performance of the system.

• It is the most important function of an operating system that manages primary

memory.

• It helps processes to move back and forward between the main memory and
execution disk.

• It helps OS to keep track of every memory location, irrespective of whether it is

allocated to some process or it remains free.
Why Use Memory Management?
• Here, are reasons for using memory management:
• It allows you to check how much memory needs to be allocated to
processes that decide which processor should get memory at what
time.
• Tracks whenever inventory gets freed or unallocated. According to it will
update the status.
• It allocates the space to application routines.
• Helps protect different processes from each other
• It places the programs in memory so that memory is utilized to its full
extent
Memory Management Techniques
• Here, are some most crucial memory management techniques:
• Single Contiguous Allocation
• It is the easiest memory management technique.
• In this method, all types of computer’s memory except a small
portion which is reserved for the OS is available for one application.
• For example, MS-DOS operating system allocates memory in this way.
• An embedded system also runs on a single application.
Memory Management Techniques
• Partitioned Allocation
• It divides primary memory into various memory partitions, which is
mostly contiguous areas of memory.

• Every partition stores all the information for a specific task or job.

• This method consists of allotting a partition to a job when it starts &

unallocated when it ends.
Memory Management Techniques
• Paged Memory Management
• This method divides the computer’s main memory into fixed-size
units known as page frames.

• This hardware memory management unit maps pages into frames

which should be allocated on a page basis.
Memory Management Techniques
Segmented Memory Management
• Segmented memory is the only memory management method that
does not provide the user’s program with a linear and contiguous
address space.

• Segments need hardware support in the form of a segment table.

• It contains the physical address of the section in memory, size, and

other data like access protection bits and status.
Memory Management Techniques
• What is Swapping?
• Swapping is a method in which the process should be swapped temporarily from
the main memory to the backing store.

• It will be later brought back into the memory for continue execution.

• Backing store is a hard disk or some other secondary storage device that should
be big enough in order to accommodate copies of all memory images for all users.

• It is also capable of offering direct access to these memory images.

Memory Management Techniques
Benefits of Swapping
• It offers a higher degree of multiprogramming.
• Allows dynamic relocation.
• For example, if address binding at execution time is being used, then
processes can be swap in different locations.
• Else in case of compile and load time bindings, processes should be
moved to the same location.
• It helps to get better utilization of memory.
• Minimum wastage of CPU time on completion so it can easily be applied
to a priority-based scheduling method to improve its performance
What is Memory allocation?
• Memory allocation is a process by which computer programs are
assigned memory or space.
• Here, main memory is divided into two types of partitions

• Low Memory – Operating system resides in this type of memory.

• High Memory– User processes are held in high memory.

Partition Allocation

• Memory is divided into different blocks or partitions.

• Each process is allocated according to the requirement.
• Partition allocation is an ideal method to avoid internal
fragmentation.
 Partition Allocation
•Below are the various partition allocation schemes :
 First Fit: In this type fit, the partition is allocated, which is the first
sufficient block from the beginning of the main memory.
 Best Fit: It allocates the process to the partition that is the first
smallest partition among the free partitions.
 Worst Fit: It allocates the process to the partition, which is the
largest sufficient freely available partition in the main memory.
 Next Fit: It is mostly similar to the first Fit, but this Fit, searches
for the first sufficient partition from the last allocation point.
What is Paging?
• Paging is a storage mechanism that allows OS to retrieve processes from the
secondary storage into the main memory in the form of pages.

• In the Paging method, the main memory is divided into small fixed-size
blocks of physical memory, which is called frames.

• The size of a frame should be kept the same as that of a page to have
maximum utilization of the main memory and to avoid external
fragmentation.

• Paging is used for faster access to data, and it is a logical concept

 What is Fragmentation?
• Processes are stored and removed from memory, which creates free
memory space, which are too small to use by other processes.

• After sometimes, that processes not able to allocate to memory blocks

because its small size and memory blocks always remain unused is
called fragmentation.

• This type of problem happens during a dynamic memory allocation

system when free blocks are quite small, so it is not able to fulfill any
request.
 What is Fragmentation?
• Two types of Fragmentation methods are:
• External fragmentation
• Internal fragmentation
• External fragmentation can be reduced by rearranging memory contents to
place all free memory together in a single block.

• The internal fragmentation can be reduced by assigning the smallest

partition, which is still good enough to carry the entire process.
What is Segmentation?
• Segmentation method works almost similarly to paging.
• The only difference between the two is that segments are of variable-
length, whereas, in the paging method, pages are always of fixed size.
• A program segment includes the program’s main function, data
structures, utility functions, etc.
• The OS maintains a segment map table for all the processes.
• It also includes a list of free memory blocks along with its size,
segment numbers, and its memory locations in the main memory or
virtual memory.
What is Dynamic Loading?
• Dynamic loading is a routine of a program which is not loaded until
the program calls it.

• All routines should be contained on disk in a relocatable load format.

• The main program will be loaded into memory and will be executed.

• Dynamic loading also provides better memory space utilization.

What is Dynamic Linking?
• Linking is a method that helps OS to collect and merge various modules
of code and data into a single executable file.
•
• The file can be loaded into memory and executed.

• OS can link system-level libraries into a program that combines the

libraries at load time.

• In Dynamic linking method, libraries are linked at execution time, so

program code size can remain small.